1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to the reconfiguration of computers on a computer network. More particularly, this invention relates to a method and system for automatic reconfiguration of tester systems and host a systems in an electronic testing and manufacturing environment.
2. Background of the Invention
Large scale electronics manufacturing requires complex testing systems for both electronic components and electronic assemblies. One of the larger manufacturers of test equipment for this application is Teradyne, Inc. in Boston, Mass.
A typical tester, such as a Teradyne J994, has a UNIX workstation attached which runs all of the testing software and controls the tester itself. The tester workstation has a specially configured kernel as well as one or more specific devices files which allow it to interact with and control the tester. Several tester workstations may be networked together to allow monitoring of the tester workstations as well as communications between tester workstations and other networked devices. Unfortunately, when one of the tester workstations experiences either software or hardware difficulties, it is necessary to replace the tester workstation with either a spare tester workstation or another UNIX workstation and reconfigure the new UNIX workstation as a tester.
Because of the cost associated with having a spare UNIX workstation configured as a spare tester workstation, a stand alone host system is typically substituted for the failed tester workstation and the host system is reconfigured to match the replaced tester workstation. This process can take hours and results in significant down time for the tester. Stand alone host systems may or may not also be part of the computer network and are usually configured for other tasks such as development of testing software to the dedicated tester workstations.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a convenient, fast and therefore economical way to swap a host system in for a tester workstation.
One embodiment of the invention provides a shell script which verifies the current configuration of the replacement workstation, copies a new kernel onto the workstation to be converted into a tester workstation, creates the necessary device files, and configures the workstation to look and act like a tester workstation as opposed to a host system. This embodiment of the invention accomplishes this by querying the user for the network address of the tester workstation to be swapped out and copying, creating and reconfiguring the configuration files for the network on the system to be swapped in. This invention allows an engineering department to use a workstation for off-line development and eliminates the need to provide a spare tester workstation which is not available for off-line development.
Another embodiment of the invention allows reconfiguration of a tester workstation as a host workstation which is suitable for stand alone use as a development system.
Other advantages will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description read in conjunction with the appended claims.